Public transit ridership up in San Antonio

By Vianna Davila :
June 4, 2012
: Updated: June 4, 2012 10:53pm

More people are using public transit in San Antonio and across the country, according to a national transportation report released Monday.

VIA Metropolitan Transit experienced an 8 percent ridership increase in the first quarter of 2012. San Antonio had the eighth-largest percent increase among passenger surges experienced by cities with large bus systems.

“That's a huge number when you consider we've added zero service” in the last two years, VIA President and CEO Keith Parker said.

The numbers, compiled by the American Public Transportation Association, showed a 5 percent increase in public transit ridership nationally in the first four months of the year. In that time, people took almost 2.7 billion public transit trips.

Parker attributed VIA's growth to riders' desire to save money, but also to the agency's improved customer service and its reliability. That, he believes, has helped improve the ridership experience for customers who must rely on VIA for transportation, but has also drawn new riders who choose to use the bus service.

Between Jan. 1 and the end of March, there were 11.2 million trips on the VIA bus system, compared with 10.4 million trips during the same period in the previous year.

VIA's paratransit ridership, service for people disabilities, was up 1.3 percent the first quarter of 2012 during the same period in 2011.

Though gas prices started to go down in the past two months, VIA also experienced small ridership increases in April and May over the same period in 2011, Parker said.